Blades Discussion

[Shadow Reaper]

So, it appears the release of Blades is a mess. What’s in the shops is not what is explained online. Here’s a copy of what appears at this point is entirely wrong. Please jump in a make any corrections you can.


In Star Citizen, "blades" generally refer to AI systems that can be installed in larger ships to perform specific tasks. They can be used for combat, navigation, exploration, and more. Blades are a way to extend a ship's capabilities and can be customized based on the ship's role and the player's preferences.

Here's a breakdown of some common AI blades:

Combat:

• Shield Management Blade: Provides advanced shield control options for finer manipulation.
• Item Lock Blade: Allows for targeting specific components of enemy ships.
• Drone Management Blade: Enables control of onboard drones.
  

Navigation & Exploration:

• Enhanced Route Navigation: Offers improved starmap and navigation options, including route danger assessment.
• Trade Database: Allows viewing buy/sell prices from anywhere in the universe.
• Stellar Charting System: Makes it easier to discover jump points.
  

Other:

• Cargo Manifest Masker: Allows disguising cargo for smuggling purposes.
• Internal Security System: Provides internal ship information and door control.
  

Note: The specific AI blades available and their functionalities may evolve as Star Citizen develops.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

So first thing to note is, blades are being released for all size ships. The above is simply wrong.

Has anyone seen these blades? I’ve seen some weapons and flight blades. I haven’t seen these combat blades above. Anyone seen anything like these?

 

[Deroth]

CIG, yet again, let the marketing team make game design decisions, and in predictable fashion they just rehashed a bad idea CIG had to undo, to much criticism. (Selling ship equipment through the Pledge Store, then later having to convert them to some form of game currency as it is too problematic.)

To make things even worse, blades are being sold as not only ship specific, but ship VARIANT specific. Then, to add insult to injury, the effects from the blades being sold are...laughable, at best. To see what I mean, just go to the Pledge Store then search 'blades', or go to Spectrum to see the flaming CIG is already receiving (only a matter of time until the usual suspects start doing posts/stories to flame CIG for this bungle.)

 

[Mudhawk]

Honestly, the true insult is that blue t-shirt / cap combo if you're actually buying an upgrade with new money.
Who in the devil's kindergarden approved of that idea?
It's bad enough that those blades have next to no effect.
And those weapon upgrade kits are one-shot tricks. Rockets and a Tonk-Gatling with how little ammo?
Seriously, buy any of these offerings only if you like the Liveries that come with them.
Me for my part I'll keep my Fomo in check and wwait for the Guardian MX.
Gotta invest my capacity for disapointment where it counts.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I’m not surprised CIG has offered a blade solution that seems to appeal to everyone who wants a fully tricked out ride, despite it subtracts one quality to enhance another. That’s just doing business.

I am interested though concerning these “combat” blades, that supposedly enhance targeting specific components. One can imagine loading a low repetition, BFG (big fucking gun) in the nose of a Sentinel, like the several second gun from a tonk; and targeting the reactor of your opponent. The giganto-slug tears through armor and metal for a one shot kill. Suddenly S5 guns have a raison d’etra.

I am however only seeing “flight” and “weapons” blades. No “combat” blades.

 

[Deroth]

CIG has stated more are coming, this is just the first wave.

Selling promised ship equipment on the Pledge Store at all is what I'm taking issue with. Kits I understand, they're essential just a more efficient way to variant, I'm all good with that.
However, ship equipment, especially promised core functionality ship equipment (weapons, shields, coolers, and power plants) was sold through the Pledge store in the past, back before they could be purchased in-game. This lead to a lot of issues with P2W complaints from one side as well as cost versus capability complaints from the other side. Which then become an whole other issue once they could be purchased in-game as the costs didn't scale well at all with the cost and availability in-game. All of this eventually lead CIG to pull ship equipment from the Pledge Store and refund them for game currency.

Now, they're doing it again.

I also take issue with the implementation of blades being ship variant specific. This is now how they explained it in the past and will only make them both a balance and administrative overhead nightmare. Having them at specific sizes is something CIG has mentioned multiple times in the past, with different ships being capable of using different quantities of different sizes, just like so much other ship equipment...but ship variant exclusive...just bad. These are not kits, these are promised core functionality ship components, so should be handled the same way.
With this implementation of blades, I am now seriously concerned that ship armor will be implemented in an even worse way.

 

[FZD]

With blades, I'm only upset about how absolutely useless they are. You get 1 deg/s in every direction with the handling blade while sacrificing some speed. Alternatively you get a tiny bit of more speed by sacrificing 1 deg/s in every direction.
You need a stopwatch to notice any difference from blades. So very very pointless.

So I'm frankly as surprised as CIG is that there was such a backlash for selling the early access to blades like they do with ships. Y'know, ships? Those things that actually introduce visible advantages. Like if you want to complain about pay to win, then I'd find it odd if you focused on how my arrow can turn at 75 degrees per second while your slightly faster arrow only turns at 74 degrees per second, when I can go back to the hangar and spawn a Polaris that more or less automatically blows up your arrow with PDCs alone. I just don't get it. Why are people up in arms about the former while they're fine with the latter?

 

[Thalstan]

I think the big backlash is that they are ship specific more than anything and comes with a costly paint job.

At the most, these things are worth 3-5 bucks (some could argue that they are worth less) but to make up for the problem, they saddle it with a costly paint job. Same for the bomb racks. Honestly, this feels like voyager direct all over again and at least some of the longer term backers know how much that bombed (no pun intended)

I think there are other factors are play here. Like it or not, CIG has let the narrative get away from them on this, and between the Idris being released at least 12 months, if not 18 or more months (sorry, edited) early, the fact they lost 20 million in 2023, closed their LA office, cut some expensive long term employees in 2024, cancelled the in-person CitizenCon 2025, and the narrative that is out there and being driven by some of the bigger YouTubers (no matter if they played the game or not) is that CIG is running out of money. Thus, the huge push for sales this year (looking to be a banner year so far, depending on the fallout of bladegate is), the big push for SQ42 to come out next year (I still won't believe it until I see it), plus the cuts in costs in terms of staffing, closing an office, etc., and no matter if it's true or not, it SOUNDS plausible. Unfortunately, CIG cannot refute this without providing evidence and I doubt they would be willing to release more financials earlier, no matter what the optics are from them.

If the game looks in doubt, will people funnel more money in or cut their losses?

CIG made some bad choices and this is the result, the narrative being lost to them. It would have been a much safer choice to release the Kraken, Release a concept Battlecruiser, etc., than to release the Idris early.

Time will tell.

 

[Sky Captain]

I’m ok with blades in general. Buying s small ship tweak by CCUing to a same hull variant with cooler equipment and buying a blade have the same general outcome, so I see them as largely the same thing. I’m less keen on blades being limited to a variant instead of applying to a full hull series and leading backers to buy these in variant bundles.

 

[DirectorGunner]

I feel like I'm being aggressively milked for FOMO of the unknown... but I am resisting the urge to purchase any blades from today or yesterday, minus the cheapest (argo) for curiosity's sake.